Starting All Over Again
by ButtercreamFrosting
Summary: Years ago Lira made the biggest mistake of her life. When she gets the chance to start all over again, will she have the courage to do so? LxOC Some AU


Author's Note: Huzzah! My first ever fanfic, so please let me know how I'm doing (please no flames, just constructive criticism). Also, for the sake of this story, I've changed the dates around simply because it would be a little hard to explain all the anachronisms if this story had been set to the original timeline. I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, but the OC and other people you don't recognize are mine.

(A/N-- so this was deleted I guess? Cause I hadn't updated for the longest time. So here it is again...)

Valentine's Day Part I

Valentine's Day, Wammy's House, 1999

Valentine's Day. A day where lovers come together, new relationships are made, and everyone is all lovey-dovey. Barf. To Lira, Valentine's Day was just a lie—one big lie. Everyone _pretended _to love one another. It was a simply a day where you can where you can buy something (mostly chocolate and flowers and those stupid little bears with their doe eyes that say "I WUV YOU!" oh-so sickenly sweet when you squeeze them) for your significant other with hopes of distracting them away from the mistakes in the past. Like cheating on said significant other.

Every year some dope gave her chocolates and confessed his feelings, and every year she took it all with a fake smile and "Thank you." Poor fools. They didn't know that she'd never even consider going out with the likes of them. She'd rather have someone crouching in the corner of the room, loving her silently. That way she wouldn't have to keep crushing hearts and dreams every year, with her "Sorry's" and "Let's stay friend's".

But even though she hated Valentine's Day and all its fakeness, she was, after all, a girl (a hopeless one at that), and thus hoped in the back of her mind and in her heart, that that one person would give her something, _anything_, and proclaim his undying love for her and blah, blah, blah, then they lived happily ever after in an artsy loft in the city.

But he never did, and he probably never will. They were good friends (which mostly explains her infatuation with him in the first place—isn't that how it always started?), but she wanted so much more. Idiot. Doesn't he understand what "flirting" is? She does it all the time, and with all the rumors, one would think, "Hmm…maybe they're true. I should ask…" But no. He didn't.

And that's why she threw a book at his black, disheveled head.

L. Lawliet, more commonly known as Ryuuzaki amongst his peers, gave a small "oof!" and turned towards Lira, rubbing the spot where her paperback (yet still painfully hard) workbook hit him.

"Either you have an _extreme _dislike of algebra suddenly (and I know you don't because you love it) and felt the need to vent by throwing your workbook at the closest thing to you," here he gestured to the crumpled heap of a math book laying at his (bare) feet, "or your upset at me."

Lira narrowed her jade eyes at him slightly and frowned, crossing her arms.

"I'll take the latter…" He sighed and bent over to pick up her paperback with his free hand, the other still at his head, making his hair even more ruffled than usual.

Lira stared at him for a few more seconds, then sighed and snatched the book out of his hand. She tucked it under her arm with the rest of her items, a large sketchpad and a pencil case containing various art utensils.

She was a very artistic girl, preferring to stay indoors and sketch non-stop while the rest of the orphans played out in the sun. This explained her milky white skin, almost translucent, the blue veins clearly visible. She always hated it when people called her "pale"—she favored _porcelain_. It sounded classier, more beautiful, though she never thought of herself that way.

"Nothing…you did _nothing_." She turned on her heel and began to make her way to her favorite sketching area, the vacant classroom at the back of the orphanage. It was always brightly lit naturally, the wide windows letting in every ray of sunshine. The other kids called it creepy, haunted, though it looked nothing of the sort. She figured they said that simply because it was so unused.

L watched her go with a rather perplexed look upon his face. _Now just _what _is wrong with her today?_ He shook his head and trotted after her.

He always followed, even when she yelled at him for doing so, shouting that her "privacy was being invaded" and that "her creative juices couldn't flow with him blocking them". But he couldn't help himself. Her portrayals were stunning, more beautiful than Linda's, whose illustrations were remarkable even at such a young age. He just had to take a peek every once in a while…both at the image, and the creator herself, though he would never admit it.

xXx

L and Lira's friendship blossomed around the age of twelve, about a year after Lira first showed up on the doorstep with her tattered and patched up backpack on her shoulder and a small teddy bear wearing a black lolita-like dress clutched to her chest.

Lira was never a very talkative girl, due to her father dying of pneumonia when she was at the age of nine, and then her mother two years later. She had committed suicide, no longer able to keep the loneliness within her at bay, despite Lira always being by her side, softly encouraging her to go on for another day.

Now with everyone she had ever loved gone, Lira became even more socially awkward, finding comfort and solace instead in her bear, dressed appropriately in black for mourning.

For the next year or so, Lira kept a steady routine of getting up at six, eating breakfast by herself in the mess hall, silently walking to each of her classes (the standard math, science, history, English, and the optional electives; art, art history, and photography), eating lunch (by herself again), sketching (her hours doing this varied, but the average time was about three to four hours), dinner (alone), shower, then falling into either a dreamless or nightmare-filled sleep.

She did all of this so routinely, that she hadn't noticed the two black orbs studying her every move.

Finally, on the day of her twelfth birthday, she realized that she had apparently been watched all along. There, sitting on her desk in math class, was a small box, wrapped in a neatly tied red ribbon.

_This is a joke_, she had thought, disgusted that a person would be so cruel into letting her believe that someone actually wanted to be her friend. _Who'd do such a thing?_

Still, she proceeded to slide the ribbon off, not denying the curiosity inside her.

The ribbon now off the box, she took hold of the lid and took that off as well. A look of shock positioned itself upon her face, as she gazed at the assortment of chocolates placed neatly in their paper wrappings at the bottom.

She examined every inch of the box, looking for some sort of sign telling her that this was all a prank, played on her by some sadistic creep who targeted depressed and borderline suicidal girls. But the only thing she found was a small card of heavy paper with the words _Happy Birthday _scrawled on it.

Lira positioned the lid back on the box and slid it into her desk. All throughout class, she tried to guess who would give her something like this.

Unconsciously, her hand would graze the box's gold lid, ruminating on her question and trying to focus on the complicated problem on the board.

It was about fifteen minutes until the end of class, when she felt it. That feeling she got when someone was watching her closely. She could almost picture the piercing eyes.

The feeling was strong, stronger than usual, which meant that whoever was performing the task, was certainly concentrating hard. She shifted a little, trying to shake the sensation off a bit.

When there was only five minutes left of class, she was about ready to scream her head off and pull her hair out. _Ten minutes is looong enough, buddy! _she silently yelled at the individual who was causing her so much discomfort.

Lira whipped her head around, trying to find the culprit. She scanned the back of the room, the feeling of panic almost outshining the feeling of being watched when she hadn't yet found anyone meeting her eyes.

She was about to give up when finally her bright green eyes found black ones. She shivered a bit, knowing automatically that this boy was the one who was observing her.

She stared, transfixed, into those black pools, before she pulled away and focused on the body connected to them.

The body was a thin one, curled into a rather uncomfortable looking crouch, perched on the seat beneath it. The skin was pale, much like her own, and it was dressed in a plain white shirt and blue jeans.

Deciding that there was nothing hostile or dangerous about this body (unless you considered a crouch hostile and dangerous), she moved her eyes to focus on the face.

Needless to say, Lira was quite surprised when she looked upon her observer's visage. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed him before, what with those dark bags and black messy hair. He had a rather lifeless looking face, no expression at all, but those eyes were teeming with action and life, almost burning her as he stared.

She slowly turned back around, knowing that he was still watching, and gathered her things when the bell finally rang.

xXx

Lira was coming out of her cozy dorm, ready to head to her newly acquired classroom, when she felt that feeling again.

She stood rooted to her spot just outside her door, not wanting to meet those black eyes that made her shiver.

Sensing that she knew he was there, he spoke out, giving away his location, just to the right of her, barely a foot away. "I noticed you got my gift."

The voice wasn't frightening in the least, still a slightly high due to his young age, but with an underlying tone that predicted teenager-ism (and inevitably a deeper voice) soon.

But the voice still made Lira uneasy. Perhaps it was just that it sounded so emotionless, like he could really care less whether or not she got his gift.

She turned her head towards the voice, looking at the form from which it came. Perhaps he noticed the fear that she tried so hard to hide, for he gave a small smile. She relaxed a bit, the smile wasn't dangerous or leering in any way, and she felt it gave his fair face a more pleasant look to it.

She looked at him some more, debating whether or not she was ready to answer, and the smile began to look a little nervous. He was beginning to feel this was a mistake.

Taking a risk (a risk for her at least), she began to speak: "H-how did you know it was my birthday?" she asked in a small voice.

The smile was replaced with a look of thoughtfulness and the boy cocked his head a bit. Lira found herself flushing a little; she had to admit, he looked kinda cute doing that.

"Why _shouldn't _I know it was your birthday?"

Lira opened her mouth to answer, but found that she couldn't. He made a good point. It wasn't something that was so personal that she had to hide it from him. And she did find that it was a bit nice to know that someone, even this somewhat creepy looking guy, cared enough to get her something. The staring had to go though.

She didn't like it when she couldn't come up with an answer to something, so she just turned on her heel and started to make her way to her sketching area.

She stopped again when she heard footsteps following her. She turned and saw without surprise that he stood closely behind her. _This guy has a real issue with personal space_.

"Yes?"

"Aren't you going to at least say 'thank you'?" Boy, did this guy get to the point.

"Thank you." She thought that may have sounded a bit too bitchy, but this mysterious boy was starting to get on her nerves. She'd have to thank him properly later, but right now she just needed some alone time to calm down.

She began to walk again, when the footsteps started up again. This time she didn't stop, letting him speak to her while he walked behind her. "My name is Ryuuzaki by the way."

"Lira."

"That's a nice name."

"Thank you."

They walked in silence some more, and Lira started to think that she would never get to her secret (soon to-be-found-out if _he_ kept following) spot. Time seemed to be moving slower, and she did not like that.

When she finally reached the door to the abandoned classroom, she turned around to face this Ryuuzaki, silently willing him away with her eyes. He obviously did not get the hint. She sighed and gave up.

She walked into the classroom, and immediately regretted letting him follow. She heard him give a small gasp, which she knew was due to the numerous beautiful sketches that lined the walls and blackboard. She couldn't find a place to put all of her illustrations in her room, so she instead tacked them up in the classroom.

She found her usual seat, near the window, and sat down, opening her sketchbook at the same time.

Lira was thankful that Ryuuzaki kept his distance this time. Perhaps it was the tenseness in her muscles that gave her away.

She began to draw, thinking that he would simply grow bored and walk out, but of course, he didn't.

Instead, he walked over, and crouched down onto the chair in front of her, staring intently.

Enough was enough! She _had _to know just what it was that kept him around! "Do you need something?" she snapped.

"Not really. Just want to get to know you bit, that's all."

"Well, what do want to know?" The edginess in her voice was beginning to ebb away. She wanted to know more about him as well.

They started at the beginning. She told him about her past, her parents' deaths, her time at Wammy's so far, etc. etc.

The more she talked to him, the easier she found it was to do so. She also noticed that she was really the only one talking about her past; he mainly listened and when she asked about his life, he would change the subject by asking another question. She came to conclusion that he was simply a secretive person, and respected that.

They also talked about how others made them feel distracted and uncomfortable. That expectancy to say the right things at the right time to the right people. But together, they didn't feel anything of the sort.

Which of course, led them to become what some people call "best friends".

They weren't even really aware that they were friends. All they knew was that they spoke to one another on a regular basis, walked together, ate together, and Lira was finally becoming a bit more amiable.

The looks on their faces when a girl in their history brought up the fact that she wished her and her friend were as good as friends as Lira and Ryuuzaki were, caused good-hearted laughter.

Four years later, they were still friends. They had gone through puberty, tears, pain, laughter, and everything they came across together.

And now at the prime age of sixteen, Lira's hormones were kicking into high gear, and she began to notice how tall Ryuuzaki had become (when he was standing straight that is), how his voice had reached that mature tone, and how he only seemed to show emotion around _her_.

Lira was beginning to fall in love. Something she swore when her parents died, that she would never do.

**A/N**: YAYZ! First chapter done! Okay, so I realized I made L a bit OOC here, but I have a reason! Just wait and you'll find out what it is…hint hint. (haha). So ya know the drill: please review and tell me if you thought it was good or not! Please no flaming though…THANKIES! :3


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